Counting Stars
by willowcabins
Summary: Doccubus Space AU: Bo, the unaligned bounty hunter is hired to find Doctor Lauren Lewis, escaped captive of the Light


RIGHT hello there this is Chapter 1 of my Lost Girl Space AU, dedicated to tumblr users carlygrieg, doctor-lewis and laurendennis (my _personal_ lost girls (hahah get it (dont shoot me okay))) who are all _awesome_ and beautiful and perfect. also special thanks to mygodyourebeautiful for her amazing proof-reading skillz. ANYWAY comments and reviews are, as always, appreciated.

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Chapter 1; Ready or Not

"I think we should disappear for a while," Kenzi murmured as they walked through the bustling market town back to their ship. Cleopatra, the largest and only city on the moon of Kayro was electric with tensions. Every person on the street wore their colour of allegiance, and the fact that Bo and Kenzi adorned neither was noticed. People stared at them and Bo's skin crawled with all the stares.

"We sort of can't," Bo hissed in response.

"What do you mean?!" Kenzi demanded, ducking forward and letting her hair hide her face as a group of men jostled her. Bo grabbed her arm and urged her to walk faster.

"We _need_ to pay Ryan for the repairs and I know Cora's generous, but she _will_ expect money for the gas she's currently pouring into our ship."

"Ryan already waited a month. He can wait another month," Kenzi brushed off the concern. Bo made a face.

"What about Cora?"

"Credit?" Kenzi offered with a hopeful smile as she stepped slightly behind Bo to avoid the group of unruly Gladiators walking down the middle of the street.

"Would you give _us _credit?" Bo asked, incredulous, ducking by the hulking men.

"No," Kenzi admitted, biting her lip. "Though you could always try and convince her…"

"Cora?! Really?!"

"Oh fine, perhaps not…" Kenzi sighed and glanced up at Bo in concern. "Where are we going then?" She asked, glancing towards the docks where their ship was parked.

"Vex's." Bo replied, dread evident in her voice as she sidestepped out of the busy walkway into one of the many narrow roofed alleyways of the shanty town.

"Vex's?" Kenzi perked up. "Okay, perhaps this won't be that bad then!" Bo sighed at her friend's cautious optimism and dragged her to Vex's shack.

Vex was decked in only his aligned Purples: a sight that didn't surprise Bo, but somehow still shocked Kenzi. He frowned at the two women as his henchmen allowed them to enter. He looked at their black garb with a sigh and shook his head.

"Still not aligned?" He asked in exasperation. Bo rolled her eyes.

"Never," she reaffirmed. Vex sighed dramatically and waved the bodyguards out of the room, turning to Kenzi with a slight smile on his lips once the men had left.

"Still alive, puny human?" Kenzi smirked.

"Of course!" She joked, twirling once and bowing dramatically. Vex chuckled.

"You know, you could leave your dangerous succubus and stay with me instead," Vex offered, sitting down in his chair and elegantly landing his polished boots on the edge of his desk. Kenzi smirked.

"Only if you give me those boots," she bargained. Vex shrank back, scandalized.

"These boots?" He huffed. "These boots are the most precious item I own!" Kenzi chuckled and shook her head. Vex was a stark anomaly in his shanty town on a desert moon: his polished boots and long purple velvet cloak were incongruous with the climate and even more ill-fitting with the populous. Although Cleopatra advertised itself as a _Neutral_ town, the rising tensions in the senate over the last year had reflected themselves in the community, where the colour of alliance, once subtle markers on clothing, suddenly became _all_ that the inhabitants of Kayro seemed to be sporting.

"Well, then I'm sticking to my rebel," Kenzi teased, looping her arm through Bo's. Bo sighed and stepped forward, opening her mouth to speak. Vex interrupted her curtly.

"These are dangerous times to be a rebel, and even more dangerous to side with a rebel. Heed what you ask of me." Sometimes it was hard to forget that Vex was several centuries old, but when his cold stare cut through Bo, she was reminded age and wisdom made him her senior. She bristled under the comment and snapped a response.

"It's always a bad time to be a rebel," she disagreed, glare icy. Vex smiled.

"And now it's worse for me. Bad for business, you know." Bo shook her head.

"I know how to operate in this town, Mesmer." She was getting frustrated with him.

"You k_new_ how to operate in this town. Times are changing, my unaligned succubus."

"I can change with them."

"Can you really?" Vex didn't look convinced. Kenzi crossed her arms.

"We're here for a job, Vex, not to chitchat."

"Right down to business then?" He asked. "Did anyone see you enter?"

"No," Kenzi sighed replied reflexivity. Vex glanced at her and then shrugged, approaching Bo slowly.

"Right, succubus. I have something for you." He put his hand into his breast pocket, and for an absurd second Bo thought he would pull out a gun, ending her on this sad little moon, penniless and begging. An unbecoming way to die, she thought. Instead, he pulled out an envelope, thick with cash. "There's this doctor. This little human doctor who used to work for the light, but now doesn't anymore. Someone wants her, but I don't like getting my hands dirty."

"Who's someone?" Bo asked, trying to maintain aloof and cool as she could practically _feel_ Kenzi salivating at the sight of the cash.

"Am I paying you to ask questions?" Vex cocked his head. Bo bit her lips. She glanced at Kenzi, who nodded fervently. "This is a strictly confidential mission, ladies."

"How much _are_ you paying?" Bo asked, not looking at the money. Vex smirked.

"More than this," he replied, grabbing Kenzi's wrist and carefully putting the cash into her outstretched hand, delicately folding her fingers over the wad of credits. "If you're here within the next fortnight, then double that," he began. "If not, then there are many other criminals down on their luck I could solicit."

"Criminals?" Kenzi crossed her arms, huffing. "We're _legitimate business women_," she corrected. Vex rolled his eyes, turning back to Bo.

"Do we have an accord, succubus?" Bo sighed.

"We do," she sighed, snatching the money out of his hands and handing it to Kenzi to count. "What were our friend's last known coordinates?"

"Last seen on Alexandria. I'll have my people forward the information to your people." Vex chucked the phrases behind him as he strolled back to his desk, running his hand along the luxurious wood with a smirk. "I expect you to leave soon." When he looked up and they were still there, exchanging a confused glance, he sighed. "Leave now please," he snapped, accompanying hand motions making his intentions and desires for solitude very clear. They left, quickly and efficiently.

Back in the busy street, Kenzi glanced up at Bo, squinting against the powerful rays of the two suns in the sky. "Why did you hesitate?" She asked, tilting her head. Bo frowned.

"She's human. I was worried you might feel some solidarity towards your race!" Kenzi laughed.

"Race-schmace!" She shielded her eyes with her hand so better to look at Bo. "Did you see that money? Means we can finally _actually_ repair the ship, and perhaps even buy a new one?"

"A new ship?" Bo looked aghast. "Are you trying to _get rid of_ the crack shack?!"

"Well, that sounds forceful, it's just you know…"

"She's our _ship_ Kenzi!

"Whatever, the captain's cabin is the nicest one anyway," Kenzi huffed. "My room isn't half as luxurious."

"I need the space!"

"For your little conquests, I know, I _know_." Kenzi rolled her eyes and smiled as she caught sight of their ship at the edge of the port. "Oh look!" She grinned. "Trick's there!" Kenzi picked up her pace to a gentle jog, running up behind Trick to pat him on the left shoulder and then to quickly stand on his right. The old man immediately looked right and grinned.

"I'm too old to be fooled by such child's play, Kenzi," he chastised. Kenzi grinned.

"It was worth a try," she smirked, enveloping the little man into a hug. Bo just smiled at him.

"Is she flyable?" She asked, patting the side of the ship. Trick scoffed.

"Flyable? Your ship is scrappier than most of the scrap yard down on Atlantis."

"Fine, let me reword. Is she dead?"

"Yes, don't fly with her." Kenzi cut off Bo's exasperated sigh with a newly worded question.

"Will she lift off?" Trick muttered a quiet assent under his breath.

"Yes, she'll lift off but she'll fail you. She's _failing a part_. You need to invest in some _serious_ repair! And I don't mean illegally employing your grandfather and bartender to touch up some wires here and there. I mean, actually replacing your cooler?!"

"The cooler?" Bo brushed aside the concern with a relaxed wave. "You've said the cooler's on its last leg for years!"

"And it still is!"

"And yet we're still here." Bo crossed her arms triumphantly, smirking as she leaned against the warm metal of the machine. Trick rubbed his eyes in frustration, looking up at Kenzi, pleading.

"You need to change your stabilizers."

"No we don't!" Dyson called from the hold of the ship. Kenzi tilted her head and glanced inside, surprised to see the wolf man underneath one of the turbines.

"We don't?" She asked, stepping from the sunlight into the relative shadow of the hold and addressing his toned legs. Dyson pushed himself out from under the turbine.

"No, we don't," he repeated, grinning. "I figured out a way to use one of Tamsin's screws as a conductor, so I've connected the broken bit of the string to the screw with some of the wires that Trick lent us, and so now it's all fixed."

"It was _my_ idea," Tamsin clarified, looking down at the two in the hold from her perch on the balcony.

"But I _actually_ did it," Dyson agreed with a light grin. Tamsin rolled her eyes and fixed Kenzi with a penetrating stare.

"Are we leaving yet? I _hate_ this town."

"You hate this town?! At least people aren't looking you up and down like they're going to eat you," Kenzi whined, crossing her arms. She glanced out into the sunlight and shrunk back slightly, shaking her head. She glanced back up at Tamsin and realised she was still waiting for a response. "Oh, yeah I think we're leaving soon. I just need to check we have the coordinates of our next destination."

"We got a job?" Dyson perked up. Kenzi made a face.

"Well, _sort of_. Bo will explain."

"What do you mean, "sort of"?" Tamsin crossed her arms and widened her stance, immediately intimidating Kenzi, who stepped into Dyson's space, almost as if to put the stockier man as a shield between herself as Tamsin.

"Bo will explain?" Kenzi repeated. Bo's voice suddenly cut through the hanger as she entered, followed by an entreating Trick.

"Literally the _only_ thing in this ship that doesn't make me want to scrap it right now is your gravity drive, Bo! The _only_ thing!"

"Well, that's a plus! When we die at least we'll die the right way up!" Kenzi grinned between granddaughter and father, and then swallowed apprehensively as neither of their gazes softened. "Or perhaps not…"

"Either way, you'll _die_ because of this ship," Trick explained, gesticulating around himself.

"Yes! Fine! I know, my ship's not the _best_ ship, but she's still got some life in her yet!"

"Yes! You! This is a death trap Bo and I refuse to let you fly her."

"Refuse?" Bo's eyes sparkled and Kenzi backed behind Dyson, whispering a quiet "uh oh" as the conflict in front of her unfurled. "You can _not_ tell me what to do, old man!" She looked like she was going to say more, but decided instead to fix Trick with one last, angry glare before she hurried up the stairs, taking two at a time and ducking behind Tamsin, who watched the whole exchange from her high perch. A small smirk played on her lips. Trick made to follow Bo, but Dyson stopped him by laying a gentle hand on Trick's chest.

"She's tense right now, Trick. All this "chose a side" discussion has really put her on edge. You can talk to her again about buying a new ship when we come back from this mission."

"Yeah!" Kenzi agreed. "This mission's meant to be _lucrative_ too."

"Lucrative?" Trick's brow furrowed as he looked around the hold. "You seem to have no cargo."

"Yet," Kenzi agreed, evasively. Three pairs immediately honed in on Kenzi as she realised her mistake and tried to hide behind Dyson again.

"Yet?"

"Fuck."

"This deal is not legal?" Tamsin was the first to stride into the cockpit, voice betraying none of the excitement that she felt. Bo glanced behind her, watching her crew mates (and Trick) file into the cockpit and sighed.

"It's a gold mine," she said simply by way of evasion, projecting the image from her tablet onto the windscreen. DOCTOR LAUREN LEWIS, it read in capitals across the top, under which a picture portrayed a short haired blond. Under the thumbnail picture, there was some more text in caps. WANTED, ALIVE.

"I like her," Tamsin decided. "She looks fun."

"She looks _dangerous_," Dyson corrected.

"Dangerous?" Tamsin snorted. "She's _human_, wolf-boy."

"But smart, if she's evaded the Dark long enough to look to Bo for help," Trick added quietly. He crossed his arms. "This isn't a good idea, Bo."

"Why?" Bo narrowed her eyes at him. "An innocent soul I should preserve and keep away from the dark?" She asked, mockingly.

"No. A political reason. This woman, this _doctor_, used to work for the Light. She's caught in the middle of the web that the Dark and the Light have spun for each other, and this hunt for her might leave you ensnared." Bo bit her lip. That _was_ good advice. She glanced at the poster again.

"We _need_ the money," murmured quietly. Trick laughed humorlessly.

"Of course you do," he muttered, walking out of the cockpit. Bo bit her lip, frustrated. Tamsin rolled her eyes.

"I say we _go_," she sighed, exasperated. Kenzi nodded.

"Not often I agree with our favorite Valkyrie, but I'm saying the sooner the better," she chimed in. Bo glanced at Dyson, who in turn shrugged.

"You're the captain," he said, deferring the decision to her. Bo glanced at the picture on her screen and shook her head.

"We take this job and then we _disappear_," she decided. Kenzi smirked triumphantly.

"Good plan," she agreed. "Dyson, go settle our debts. Let's be ready to leave in an hour."

"On it, boss," Dyson agreed, catching the purse Bo threw at him and jogging out the cockpit cheerfully.

* * *

Hopelessness isn't enslavement; hopelessness isn't entrapment. Hopelessness is an inability to see the light, an edge of insanity to a disposition too long suffering at the whims of her captors.

Dr. Lauren Lewis, earth born and raised, absently scratching into the wall of her dungeon was hopeless. The material wasn't rock the way Lauren knew rock: earth rock was minerals and smelt earthy and was smooth to touch. Earth prisons were built with it, but this wasn't earth.

Lauren laughed quietly. As if she would ever forget.

Her hands were shaking so badly she couldn't even trace her fingernails down the thin crack that days of scratching her finger in one straight line had created. Lauren took a deep breath and pushed against the wall. It was almost as if she expected the wall to collapse together like a house of cards. It didn't. As if that small thin scratch could have caused enough structural damage to topple it.

Lauren held her breath and shut her eyes, desperately willing herself out of this situation, willing herself _somewhere else_. Anything was better than this.

She woke up, cramped on the uncomfortable pallet that the owner of the hovel (which Lauren believed was also a brothel) assured her was a bed. Gasping for breath, she sat up, slamming her head against a protruding headboard and immediately lying back down again, biting back an exclamation of pain.

Her head hurt and her skin crawled, hot and uncomfortable in the stuffy, airless room. She blinked, _hard_, trying to gain clarity. She needed to be calm and strong and _collected _if she wanted to survive today.

If she wanted to survive _any _day, really.

She climbed out of "bed" slowly, her joints stiff. She stretched, reaching for the ceiling and touching it, quickly drawing her hand back from the moist plant growing up there. Atlantis was a wet, humid planet. Despite the fact its capital city was built on the driest island, it was still damp and sodden and the thick heat had settled heavily on Lauren's bones, stifling her in her tiny room. With an arduous slowness Lauren pulled her coat off the bed, where it served as protection against the yellow, unwashed bed sheets.

Atlantis was well known for its large population of ex-military, thus making it an easy place for Lauren to disappear in. It also made it an _awful_ place for Lauren to disappear in. She sighed heavily and then donned the large over coat, putting up the hood to hide her face as she crept out of the room, hoping no one would notice the lone human wearing a large bulky coat in the summer.


End file.
